Having whipped Australia, the Indians now look set to take on England. Is cricket headed for a new world order, asks Rob Steen in the Financial Times
When Australia’s cricket team flew to India early last month they had their sights on matching one of the game’s longest-standing records. When they flew home this week, they had been soundly beaten and captain Ricky Ponting faced fierce criticism. Even those with a poor sense of smell scented an era’s end.
A ninth consecutive victory in a Test series would have equalled England’s sequence between 1884 and 1892. Instead, Australia dominated the first two days of the opening Test but allowed India’s eighth-wicket pair to save the follow-on. Then they were drubbed in the second Test and spent the last two chasing shadows.
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Soumya Bhattacharya in Cricinfo says cricket is perhaps unique among team sports in that individual face-offs within the larger contests matter almost as much as the main event. Tendulkar v Lee, anyone?
In the buffet that is Cricinfo Magazine, there is, tucked away like a garnish or a bottle of extra virgin Tuscan olive oil, a section called Golden Pairs. Here, a writer imagines which two batsmen he/she would like to see up against which two bowlers. You have the history of the game to choose from. Anything goes. The more improbable the matchings-up, perhaps the better. It’s a fantasist’s delight. It’s a fan’s delight. If you have missed it, you ought to look it up now.
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In Cricinfo Peter English points out lessons for India and Australia following three months of controversy and drama that overshadowed some wonderful cricket
The comedian Billy Connolly jokes the Queen must think the world smells of fresh paint because everything is new wherever she visits. Until the first week in January, Australia also felt they were adored throughout their country. Crowds always roar when they play, spectators crowd them for autographs and they are pestered for interviews and corporate deals. So they were stunned when the opinions of many dissenters emerged after the dramatic and spectacular Sydney Test victory.
Following issues involving umpiring, race, catching, walking, ungracious celebrations and Anil Kumble’s claim only one side was playing in the spirit of the game, the shock self-analysis began. Australia thought about their behaviour and their results started stuttering. Ricky Ponting, who nobody seriously believed should have been sacked after the second Test, has a delicate period ahead as he balances a win-at-all-costs outlook with his desire for the universal acclaim of his nation.
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Harbhajan in hot water again, says The Sydney Morning Herald. Is that a monkey gesture as he motions to the crowd, or is he just feeling the heat?
For the report click here.
We do live in times where political correctness can take bizarre overtones. Namita Bhandare in Mint.
So, I’m wondering: is it OK to be sexist but not so OK to be racist? I ask this question not in the background of Hillary vs Obama but maa ki vs monkey.
Now, if you’ve ever sat in a DTC bus in Delhi, you’ll be pretty familiar with the maa ki lexicon. In its expanded form, it refers not to motherly love but to a rather delicate part of her anatomy. Harbhajan Singh has admitted to referring disparagingly to Andrew Symonds’s mother (and I’m sure Zinedine Zidane has some thoughts on this), which, in some strange way, is less offensive than if he had called him a monkey, an animal that is venerated and even worshipped in India.
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Cricket columnist Peter Roebuck in The Sydney Morning Herald.
INDIA’S performance in chartering a plane to take the players back home in the event of an independent judge finding against them in the Harbhajan Singh case counted amongst the most nakedly aggressive actions taken in the history of a notoriously fractious game. If this is the way the Indian board intends to conduct its affairs hereafter, then God help cricket.
It is high time the elders of the game in that proud country stopped playing to the gallery and considered the game’s wider interests. India is not some tinpot dictatorship but an international powerhouse, and ought to think and act accordingly. Brinkmanship or not, threatening to take their bat and ball home in the event of a resented verdict being allowed to stand was an abomination. It sets a dreadful precedent. What price justice now?
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Rediff.com on Harbhajan Singh’s troubled track record.
Temperamental off-spinner Harbhajan Singh is no stranger to controversy, having been booked five times for violation of the ICC Code of Conduct in his international career so far.
Harbhajan, who escaped with a 50 percent fine in Tuesday’s hearing and managed to clear his name from the racism slur, often ran into trouble because of his volatile temper. Then a rookie spinner, Harbhajan had removed Ricky Ponting, who was to prove his bunny in subsequent years, stumped in the one day match at Sharjah on April 22, 1998.
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From the blog Law and Other Things, a full statement by ICC Match Referee Mike Procter, following Harbhajan Singh’s Code of Conduct hearing on January 6.
This matter started at around 2000. I have heard evidence and submissions until 2400 (midnight). It is now 0140.
Present at the hearing were: Chetan Chauhan, India team manager, Dr.M.V.Sridhar, India assistant manager, Anil Kumble, India captain; Harbhajan Singh, India player, Sachin Tendulkar, India player, umpires Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson, who laid the charges; Australia players Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Michael Clarke, Andrew Symonds and Mathew Hayden; Steve Bernard, Australia team manager, Nigel Peters QC, member of London Bar, member of MCC committee, who assisted in legal and procedural matters. Continue reading ‘Monkey business: Proctor v Harbhajan Singh’
Times of India
Swapan Dasgupta relates Indian aggression at the Sydney cricket ground to the rise in nationalism
There were two powerful images of India that came through from Sydney Cricket Ground last week. The first was a visibly irate Harbhajan Singh in a verbal altercation with Andrew Symonds. The second was a very composed but undeniably haughty Anil Kumble throwing a variant of Bill Woodfull’s legendary remark on Bodyline back at the Australians: “There are two teams out there; only one is playing cricket.”
Cricket, once a metaphor for life, has increasingly become associated with the national character. In the heydays of socialism and the shortage economy, it is unlikely an Indian player would have reacted to Australian sledging the way Harbhajan did. It is more inconceivable that the captain would have had the temerity to call the rival team a bunch of cheats – which is what Kumble did with all the imperiousness at his disposal.
Continue reading ‘India arrives’
